Sasha Nam
Sasha Nam (남 사샤 Nam Sasya) is the primary narrator and protagonist of 그들. He is initially shown as the study group leader for Billy, Travis, and Deryck. Sasha narrates parts one through three of the webcomic. Appearance Sasha is a tall, well-built young man with dark brown hair and matching eyes that have flecks of green at the bottom. His complexion is darker than average for Korean men his age. He is shown to be incredibly strong, with good reflexes, and extraordinary flexibility. Sasha tells Billy in Part 2 Chapter 3 "He Who Keeps Secrets (Refrain)" that the reason he is "so much taller, and stronger, and more muscular" than his brothers is not because he has been involved in sports and martial arts longer than they have been, but because at ten years-old he was abducted by scientists and used for human experiments that altered his DNA, muscles, and skeletal structure. Personality While good natured and kind, Sasha's interpersonal skills are lacking shown through his indifference with his responsibilities as study group leader and refusal to do anything he deems unimportant. He is hesitant to connect with other people, especially romantically, and is almost always seen around the University of Washington campus by himself. Due to the nature of his position in The Agency he is incredibly secretive, frequently avoiding questions that have to do with himself or his personal history. Sasha is incredibly protective of his younger brothers Jaeha, Eunha, and Haru; even going so far as to physically fight Them to protect Jaeha from being abducted. His younger brothers are the only ones that he will do anything asked of him with little or no protest. History Childhood Not much is known about Sasha's childhood. The Prologue reveals that he became involved in sports and martial arts at a young age and has received numerous awards for individual skills. The Experiments Shortly before his tenth birthday, Sasha was among thousands of children across the United States abducted by The Agency and sent to various remote laboratories. As one of the few Asian-Americans in the group of children at the Washington state laboratory, Sasha was initially ostracized and spent most of his time alone before meeting Katsurou Yukimura. Katsurou and Sasha quickly became friends, bonding over being second generation immigrants and their both being spoken to at home by their parents in Japanese and Korean, respectively. Afterwards, the two are inseparable and seen doing everything together. While Katsurou is teaching Sasha Japanese, Sasha admits to being in love with him by using the romantic form of 'I love you'. Approximately one month after his confession, Sasha and Katsurou are shown in a dirt floor basement with other children; all of them being bruised and beaten, with one girl have her left arm in a makeshift splint. A hushed conversation between Sasha and Katsurou reveals that for the past three weeks they have been intermittently beaten and starved by men they recognize as being security detail for the laboratory. Katsurou theorizes that the experiments are secret and the organization sponsoring the scientists is abusing the children to make it appear as though they were kidnapped and not experimented on. Sasha agrees, and adds that they will probably be starved for several days before being released to make their testimonies less reliable as starvation can alter consciousness. One week later, Katsurou and Sasha are forcibly separated with the latter promising to search for the former. After being badly beaten, Sasha is pushed out of an unmarked white van and left to walk the rest of the way back to his home. The final panels of "Nikki and Katsu" show Sasha collapsing on a stranger's porch and swearing to himself that he'll find Katsurou no matter how long it takes to accomplish this before passing out. It is left unclear who found Sasha and how he managed to get home. Young Adulthood Little is known about the period of time after the experiments and before the beginning of webcomic. What is known is that he attended Bellingham High School, and participated in their boys' volleyball team. Jaeha states that Sasha was on the boys varsity team all throughout highschool and was captain of the team as a senior. University At the start of the webcomic, Sasha is a graduate student at the University of Washington studying bioengineering with a focus on genetic engineering. He is assigned to freshman trio Billy Norman, Travis Barker, and Deryck Green as their study group leader for their first full year at the UW. Incredibly displeased at having time taken away from his graduate studies, Sasha is shown to be indifferent towards his responsibilities as study group leader. During study sessions, he frequently reads a newspaper or peer review journals borrowed from the library only occasionally offering help and seemingly trying to avoid getting to know the three. Thought bubbles reveal that he only "puts up with" being study group leader--and shows up for study sessions at all--because the recruiting department of The Agency has assigned him to observe Billy and evaluate whether or not Billy is suitable to be an agent. After several weeks of observations, Sasha is convinced that Billy's seemingly being 'permafried' is in truth a front to hide his trauma at seeing his younger sister Lacy's abduction by Them. Irritated by Sasha's indifference towards them, Billy, Travis, and Deryck follow him home one day and force him to let them into his apartment. Demanding to know "what his damage is", Sasha tells them that his history is none of their business and that he is simply too busy with his own studies to get close to people he'll only know for a short period of time. Billy's thought bubbles state that he is not convinced by such a flimsy lie and he resolves to follow Sasha for a week to find out what the truth is. In an attempt to get the three to stop talking, Sasha turns on the local news station and is visibly distressed by the piece giving updates about a string of seemingly unrelated kidnappings in which the children are found severely beaten and starved telling authorities that they had spent time in some sort of hospital and given a variety of shots that made them "feel different". Police chief statements say that they're sure the children were simply hallucinating from starvation and dehydration. Clutching at the left side of his ribcage and in tears, Sasha asks the freshman trio to leave under the pretense that he needs to study. Concerned, the three listen at his front door and overhear him sobbing. Deryck insists that they "should probably go" to give him some privacy. The following day, Sasha shows up late for their study session disheveled and obviously having had spent a long period of time crying. When asked about it, Sasha falters and insists that he had simply watched a sad movie. The freshman trio glance at each other and a shared thought bubble states that they don't believe him. Trying to take Sasha's mind off whatever had made him so upset, Travis pulls out a sensational news magazine with the headline My Sister Was Abducted and asks what Sasha knows about aliens. Though hesitant, Sasha states that from eyewitness accounts there are three different kinds of aliens: greys, Nordics, and reptilians. The freshman trio continue to ask questions and Sasha seems more than happy to answer. The next week, the freshman trio continue to ask questions, however, after seeing an update on The Agency message board requesting that he come in to discuss his report on Billy, Sasha ends the study session early. Racing across Seattle's University district to The Agency's building, Sasha's thought bubbles give a brief history of The Agency explaining that Project Blue Book never actually ended, but went black-budget and continued to operate secretly. Arriving at the office of the Head of Recruitment Agent Ramirez's office, Sasha is shocked and upset to learn that Billy has been rejected despite meeting requirements. Arguing that he covered in his report that he is positive that Billy isn't truly 'permafried' and is only putting up a front to hide his trauma, Sasha's proposal for recruitment is still shot down. Agent Ramirez changes the subject, telling Sasha that he has been given a field mission and that her receptionist has a dossier for him to read over. Surprised at being given a field mission, Sasha excuses himself and is shocked to learn that he has been moved from Secret security clearance to Top Secret and given full access to all sub-levels, archives, labs, and libraries in the building. Given a new ID badge and cubicle in the Secret Special Agent offices, Sasha is confused at the turn of events in his career at The Agency and thought bubbles show that he has a bad feeling in his stomach. That evening at one a.m. while setting up the necessary things to capture one of Them, Sasha is confronted by Billy who confirms that his suspicion that being 'permafried' is actually a front. Fully coherent and clearly far more intelligent than he makes himself appear to be, Billy correctly deduces that Sasha works for the government. Seeing through every flimsy lie Sasha tries to give to him, he is forced to reveal the full truth. Still preparing the things he needs to capture one of Them, Sasha gives a quick overview of what he truly does. He explains that at twenty, after winning the NCAA Men's Volleyball National Championship as the UW team's starting setter, he was approached by a member of the Agency and offered a position. He goes on to say that disgusted by the fact that it was the Agency who had kidnapped and experimented on thousands of children for the past several decades he attempted to quit. While trying to hand in his letter of resignation he was told that if he quit all the money the Agency had paid for his college tuition would be changed to loans in an amount double what had truly been given: forcing him to stay. Sasha reveals to Billy that it wasn't a coincidence that he was assigned to the freshman trio, he was assigned to evaluate the possibility of Billy being recruited as an agent. Confused and alarmed at the fact that someone had known his testimony to the police about his sister being abducted by Them all along, Billy demands to know how the Agency knew what had happened to his sister. Sasha replies that he isn't sure himself and was just as confused when he learned the Agency knew of his younger brother, Jaeha, almost being abducted, despite the fact that neither Jaeha nor Sasha had never told anyone. Ultimately unsuccessful in a live capture, Sasha does walk away with blood and hair samples from one of Them. Trivia * Sasha's given name is Russian and means "defender of mankind". J.S. stated that his name tying to what he does in the comic was entirely unintentional. * Sasha and his brothers' ages are separated in increments of five. Sasha is twenty-five, Jaeha is twenty, Eunha is fifteen, and Haru is five years-old. * Sasha's birthday is January 8th, 1971. He was born in Seoul, South Korea. * J.S. has specified his top five character tropes as being: the reluctant hero, man in black, An Offer You Can't Refuse, protective older brother, and the antihero. * His favorite late night snack is leftover japchae with canned sikhye. * As he was born in Seoul, Sasha has both American and Korean citizenship. * Sasha has mild alexithymia and frequently shows trouble describing complex emotions like panic, jealousy, and dread. Quotes "I didn’t want to have to go and essentially babysit a bunch of nineteen-year old brats." "Katsu! I'll find you, I swear! I'll look for you! I'll never stop looking for you!"